California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman

CHAPTER XVIII.
A FAVOR RETURNED.

What became of Joe, after his departure from the fort, no one ever
knew, for several years passed away before those who had known him than
heard of him again.

Some said he had indeed gone to the Rocky Mountains, and had
passed a year or more roaming through its wilds, and others reported
that a youth answering to his description, had been guiding trains over
the Santa Fe trails, and had won a name in Upper Mexico as a most daring
Indian-fighter, and a man whom few of the desperadoes of the plains
cared to meet.

But one night he came suddenly before several who had known him
at the fort, when he brought his captured herd in, and it was in this
way. Major Van Dorn had been pushed further west with his command, for
the Star of Empire would not allow the border to remain long in one
locality, as the march of civilization beat the red-skins further and
further toward the Land of the Setting Sun.

About his outpost Major Van Dorn had been annoyed a great deal
with a gang of desperadoes, who were road agents, horse thieves and all
else that was vile and he had offered a reward for their capture dead or
alive.

One night he had gone over to a small settlement, a few miles
from the outpost he commanded, to witness the marriage of a young
trapper to a settler's daughter; and as there was just then a number of
his troopers off on a raid, he had been accompanied only by one of his
officers and two cavalrymen.

The trapper was a handsome young man, but there was that in his
face which neither the girl's father nor the major liked; but the maiden
had fallen in love with his good looks, and plainly told her father that
he did not like her lover because he wanted her to marry the old fort
sutler, who was rich.

The settler gave his consent, however, to the marriage, and the
day had been set, or rather the night, for the ceremony.

Promptly at sunset the young groom arrived, accompanied by
several wild-looking comrades, who he said had come down from the bills
to see him "spliced," as he termed it.

The major saw these friends, and liked their looks less than he
did the groom's, and, as more of them dropped in, until there were
nearly a dozen present, he determined to he on his guard, well knowing
that was a locality for characters of a most dangerous kind.

One of the guests attracted the attention of the major in
particular, and he was about to walk over to where he stood and ask him
where they had met before, when, as though divining his purpose, the
young man left the cabin abruptly.

"Did you see that man, Stewart?" asked the major of his brother
officer.

"Yes, major, and a dashing looking follow he was, with an eye
like an eagle," was the reply.

The one to whom they referred was six feet in height, superbly
formed, and had a mass of brown curls hanging down his back.

His face was full of daring, resolute, and his eyes were black,
lustrous, and in repose sad, while a slight mustache was just shading
his lip.

He was dressed in a full suit of buckskin, fringed and beaded,
and even in the settler's cabin wore a black sombrero, the broad brim
turned up in front.

Around his waist was a belt made of a panther-skin, and in it
were a pair of revolvers and a long bowie-knife.

"I have met him somewhere before, Stewart."

"So it seems to me, major," and the two officers tried to recall
where and when the young man had crossed their paths in the past.

At length the bride came in, upon the arm of her father, and her
lover and his pards entered from outside the cabin, where they had been
joking and frolicking with each other in a somewhat rude manner.

It was evident that they had all been drinking, and the lover,
whose name was lost under the border appellation given him of Bowie Bob,
said in an insulting tone, as his eyes fell upon the major:

"This hain't no military wedding, and I wants them blue coats and
brass buttons to git."

His pards cheered at this; but the settler, Seth Kenton, stopped
forward and said:

"Bob, these gentlemen are my friends, and their being on this
border prevents our homes being burned and our families massacred, and I
invited them here to see Mollie married."

"Waal, I say no, old man," was the rude reply.

"Pardon me, Mr. Kenton, but I do not wish to be a stumbling block
in the way of your daughter's marriage, so I will retire, and Captain
Stewart will accompany me," said Major Van Dorn quietly.

The old settler evidently feared his intended son-in-law, and
knew not what to say; but Mollie Kenton spoke up and said:

"For shame, Bob, to insult my father's friends."

"I'll do more than that, gal, if they don't travel quick.

"Come, git out o' this and lively too, or I'll make it
lively fer yer," cried the bully.

Major Van Dorn was no man to be driven, and facing Bowie Bob he
said sternly:

"Young man, you are going too far, and I warn you that I will not
be bullied by you, nor shall I now leave this house to please you."

The bully winced a little at this bold front shown him, but after
a glance at his pards, he said:

You won't go, yer say?"

"I will not, nor can you force me to do so." Come, pards, let's
clip his spurs," shouted the bully and he moved toward the major.

"I guess not."

A form suddenly bounded forward and confronted the bully, and in
each hand he hold a revolver.

It was the same young man that the major had said he had seen
before.

"Look a-heur, Joe, what in thunder's up, thet you plays that
tricky hand?" whined Bowie Bob, not liking the change affairs had taken.

"It are a leetle game I hes intended springin' outer yer for some
time, yer cussed cutthroat, an' of yer hands don't by up like windmills
durned suddint, yer toes will," was the cool and threatening response.

A ringing report followed as quick as a flash, and the man
addressed as Panther Pete fell dead in his tracks, a bullet in his
forehead, sent from the unerring pistol of the man who so boldly faced
the gang of desperadoes, while, with only the interruption of the shot
and the fall, he continued in the same cool way:

"Yer see, pards, I set another tune, an' none o' yer hed ther
nerve ter jine in ther chorus, an' it's all well yer didn't, fer I hev
every durned gerloot o' yer kivered, an' 'leve more fun'rals in these
weepins, while you only counts nine."

The honest settlers present now also stepped forward. and wholly
at the mercy of their captors, the band of outlaws offered no
resistance, and were soon secured beyond all possibility of escape."

"Now, my friend , whom have I to thank for this night's good
work" said Major Van Dorn, as he stopped up to the daring borderman who
had been the means of saving his life and also of having captured the
very band of outlaws he had tried so hard to hunt down.

"My name are Joe, major," was the quiet reply.

"Joe! By heaven, but I see it now!

"You are Joe the Stampeder, as the boys called you at the fort?"

"I guess I are the one thet were thet Joe," and Joe grasped the
hand warmly that was extended to him, and that night accompanied the
major and his prisoners back to the fort; but not one word could they
get him to tell them of where he had been, and what adventures he had
known since three years before he had ridden off alone as the Boy
Pioneer, bound for the Rocky Mountains.